monopoly — Bunk History

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Portrait of Henry George

“The Great Enigma of Our Times”

The 1881, Henry George’s ”Progress and Poverty” proposed a land value tax — helping to usher in the Progressive Era.

by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on May 21, 2025

Jeff Bezos against a red D.C. background with the Washington Post newspaper on the bottom half

Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?

The Amazon founder was once the newspaper’s savior; now journalists are fleeing as the paper that brought down Nixon struggles under Trump’s second term.

by Clare Malone via The New Yorker on May 12, 2025

A man in a suit with angel wings clipped to his back, tipping a hat with six different arms.

The Cult of the Entrepreneur

Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?

by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein via The New Republic on February 17, 2025

A advertisement for the BankAmericard depicting it as a card for the American family.

How Did America Become the Nation of Credit Cards?

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?

by Sean H. Vannatta via Aeon on April 22, 2024

The 59th Street electric powerhouse, New York City, 1904.

The Utility of Utilities

Climate activists are no fans of electric utilities. But the alternatives that they often prefer will not deliver infrastructural change at the scale we need.

by Matt Huber, Fred Stafford via Damage on April 1, 2024

Old car holding up a mining chute on the over of the book “The Bootleg Coal Rebellion”

Rock-Fuel and Warlike People: On Mitch Troutman’s “The Bootleg Coal Rebellion”

Native son Jonah Walters finds something entirely too innocent about the tales told about the anthracite industry’s origins.

by Jonah Walters via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 21, 2024

The Hollywood sign replaced with the words "The End."

The Life and Death of Hollywood

Film and television writers face an existential threat.

by Daniel Bessner via Harper’s on March 21, 2024

Painting of the Boston Tea Party.

“Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!”

The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.

by Benjamin L. Carp via American Heritage on March 19, 2024

The Ruthless Rise and Fall of Paramount Pictures During Hollywood’s Golden Age

The venerable movie studio once defined the industry's zeal for consolidation, pioneering vertical integration and serving as the model for its major rivals.

by Thomas Doherty via The Hollywood Reporter on February 29, 2024

"Choosing the Ring" painting by Jean Carolus (1814–1897).

How Diamond Rings Became a Symbol of Love

While engagement or wedding rings are certainly not a new idea, the prevalence of diamonds is a more recent phenomenon.

by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox via The Saturday Evening Post on February 13, 2024

A group of men in a mailroom pose next to tube equipment

When a Labyrinth of Pneumatic Tubes Shuttled Mail Beneath the Streets of New York City

Powered by compressed air, the system transported millions of letters between 1897 and 1953.

by Vanessa Armstrong via Smithsonian on December 22, 2023

Colonists boarding the ships and dumping the tea chests.

How the Boston Tea Party's 'Destruction of the Tea' Changed American History

Attacks on private property enraged Colonial leaders and the British public, hardening positions and ruling out compromise.

by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on December 13, 2023

Hamilton’s System

Who is the father of American capitalism?

by Jacob Soll via The Hedgehog Review on November 1, 2023

How Public Opinion May Decide the FTC Amazon Antitrust Suit

In the 1920s, electricity monopolies survived an antitrust investigation because they had won over the public.

by Daniel Robert via Made By History on October 24, 2023

Hand facing palm up and holding three pills.

Unreasonable Terms

How American drug companies have exploited government contracts to pursue profit over public interest.

by Daniel J. Kevles via New York Review of Books on October 5, 2023

2024 Republican presidential debate on Fox News.

How Cable News Upended American Politics

Cable TV's backers sold the technology as a boon to democracy, but embraced a business model that chased niche audiences.

by Kathryn Cramer Brownell via Made By History on September 27, 2023

Cover of the book "24/7 Politics," featuring photos of Nixon and Carter.

The Battlefields of Cable

How cable TV transformed politics—and how politics transformed cable TV.

by Jesse Walker via Reason on August 15, 2023

When Socialists Put an End to Pasta Inflation

The history of food inflation during World War I, and the riots that halted it, show how capitalists take advantage of consumer expectations to price gouge.

by Brian Callaci via Jacobin on June 11, 2023

Collage of Supreme Court and 14th amendment-related images.

Reversing the Legacy of Slaughter-House

A careful examination of the Privileges or Immunities Clause shows what we lost 150 years ago.

by Ilan Wurman via Law & Liberty on April 3, 2023

March Madness Stadium

A Harsh Reality Lies Beneath the Glory of March Madness

Despite captivating the nation with their athleticism every March, collegiate basktball players remain an exploited labor force for the profit of the NCAA.

by Theresa Runstedtler via CNN on March 18, 2023

Detail from a Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers graphic, 1877.

America’s Oldest Railway Union Must Break With Its Right-Wing Past

Why does the government have the power to break massive union strikes? Part of the story is a history of conciliatory railway unionism.

by Maya Adereth via Jacobin on January 9, 2023

Illustration of Annette Gordon-Reed.

Majority Rule on the Brink

The legacies of our racial past, and the prospects ahead for an embattled republic.

by Annette Gordon-Reed, Chris Lehmann via The Forum on July 27, 2022

Servers at a Facebook data center

Build a Better Internet

An interview with Ben Tarnoff, the author of "Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future."

by Nick Serpe, Ben Tarnoff via Dissent on June 27, 2022

A line of cars waiting their turn at a filling station in Portland, Oregon, 1973.

The Price of Oil

The history of control and decontrol in the oil market.

by Gregory Brew via Phenomenal World on May 25, 2022

Men engaged in the various stages of making glass bottles in London, 1888.

Workers Have Been Fighting Automation Ever Since Capitalism Began

Automation didn’t start in the age of robots and microchips, but can be traced back to the late 19th century glass industry and its skilled glass workers.

by Alison Kowalski via Jacobin on April 8, 2022

A political cartoon lampooning the “robber baron” monopolists’ exploitation of laborers, 1883

When Americans Liked Taxes

The idea of liberty has often seemed to mean freedom from government and its spending. But there is an alternate history, one just as foundational and defining.

by Gary Gerstle via New York Review of Books on February 23, 2022

A woman standing in a field.

Drug Prohibition and the Political Roots of Cartel Violence in Mexico

Until both American and Mexican police forces stop treating it like a war, the violence of drug prohibition won't stop.

by Benjamin T. Smith via HNN on August 8, 2021

Pills in a week organizer.

Drug Companies Keep Merging. Why That’s Bad For Consumers and Innovation.

Over 30 years, dramatic consolidation has meant higher prices, fewer treatment options and less incentive to innovate.

by Robin Feldman via Made By History on April 6, 2021

President Biden in a warehouse

Government Has Always Picked Winners and Losers

A welfare state doesn't distort the market; it just makes government aid fairer.

by David M. P. Freund via Made By History on March 29, 2021

Mark McGwire baseball card

Neoliberalism with a Stick of Gum: The Meaning of the 1980s Baseball Card Boom

Before beanie babies and Pogs, small rectangles of cardboard were the errant investments of a stratifying American society.

by Jason Tebbe via Tropics of Meta on March 12, 2021

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